Today, during a Ministerial Statement on the Government’s long-term plan for housing, Lee Rowley MP, the Minister of State for Housing, assured Mark Francois MP that under the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), housing targets will now be advisory and not mandatory.
In his question to Lee Rowley MP. Mark said:
“Can I ask the Minister for a very clear answer on the controversial topic of housing targets? There are basically two ways of doing it, you can have mandatory targets where the man in Whitehall knows best and hands down a target to local authorities that they have to comply with whether it is sensible or not. Or you can have advisory targets where the Department can recommend a target, but if the locally elected Councillors and the people they represent know that is too high, and can give strong reasons as to why, for instance, if their District or Borough has a very large amount of green belt, when they produce their plan they can legitimately push back and offer a lower number, provided they can strongly evidence why. So, there is mandatory option- Labour and an advisory option - Conservative. Is my understanding correct?”
In response to the question, the Minister replied:
“I’m grateful to my Right Honorable Friend. Paragraph 61 of the NPPF says that the outcome of the assessment, is an advisory starting point. That is absolutely for the first time in the NPPF, and then there are potentially exceptional circumstances, which can both be discussed with representatives from the Government, in this the planning inspectorate and the case can be made and that can be discussed, and if accepted, alternative arrangements can be taken.” Mark added afterwards, this is an important announcement by the Planning Minister in Parliament, that, in future, housing targets will be advisory- not mandatory. Something I very much welcome.
